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The landmark ruling affirmed two lower court
decisions. The Federal Court of Justice said the feature known as
Friend Finder constitutes “an unreasonable harassment” under
Germany's Unfair Competition Act, which considers “annoying”
marketing practices, as well as automated ones illegal.

The court also said Facebook wasn't adequately
informing its users about what it was doing with their data.

“The on-screen note in the registration process,
‘Are your friends already on Facebook?’ does not clarify that it
will import contact details from the user, analyze them and
dispatch e-mail invitations to those not registered as members of
Facebook,” the court said.

In a Jan. 14 statement, Facebook said it would
review its Friend Finder service after receiving the full decision,
which hasn't been publicly released.

“Like other internet services that provide features
like ’find a friend’ that the court reviewed, we await its full
decision and will study it carefully to assess any impact on our
services today,” a Facebook spokesman said in the statement.

“Our perseverance pays off,” Klaus Müller, chairman
of the VZBV, said in a statement. “The disclosure of personal data
of friends, colleagues or business partners on the Facebook Friend
Finder is tricky. These people have not given consent that their
data will be used by Facebook for this purpose. The rules on
unauthorized advertising exist for reason—consumers do not want to
be bothered.”

“What the judgment means exactly for the current
Friend Finder, we now have to see,” he added. “In addition to
Facebook, other services utilize this form of advertising to
attract new users. They will probably now have to rethink how they
do this.”

Attorneys: A ‘Landmark
Ruling.'

Attorneys told Bloomberg BNA that the ruling will
affect “many other business.”

“There are many other operators emulating Facebook's
Find Friends feature,” said an attorney who asked not to be
identified because his firm has represented Facebook in the past.
“We have been warning our clients for years that this could
happen.”

Attorneys said that Facebook and others with finder
functions could still retain the tool, if modifying it to provide a
clearer explanation to users in the form of a more explicit
warning. They added that it would be difficult to do that and still
keep the function as effective.

“I don't agree with the decision,” the attorney
said. “The judges took a very conservative view—they haven't grown
up in the internet age, and they acted as if they were stumbling
upon Facebook for the first time.”

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